S.F. NEIGHORHOODS Bernal Heights library is likely to get 2 murals

Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 29, 2011

A woman walks past the front of the Bernal Heights Library and the existing mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

A woman walks past the front of the Bernal Heights Library and the existing mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

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An artist rendering depicts a new mural by the Precita Eyes Muralists group planned for the front of the Bernal Heights Library branch.

An artist rendering depicts a new mural by the Precita Eyes Muralists group planned for the front of the Bernal Heights Library branch.

Photo: Precita Eyes Muralists, Bernal Heights Library Art Proje

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A detail from the east side of the library mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

A detail from the east side of the library mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

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An artist rendering depicts a new mural by Reuben Rude planned for the Moultrie Street side of the Bernal Heights Library branch.

An artist rendering depicts a new mural by Reuben Rude planned for the Moultrie Street side of the Bernal Heights Library branch.

Photo: Reuben Rude, Bernal Heights Library Art Proje

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A detail from the east facing wall of the library. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

A detail from the east facing wall of the library. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

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A detail from the playground side of the library mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

A detail from the playground side of the library mural. New murals are being proposed for the Bernal Heights Public Library in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

Bernal Heights library mural likely to be replaced

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For years, the mural adorning the Bernal Heights library has provoked a debate as colorful and layered as the artwork itself. Now a pair of proposed mural designs are set to honor the neighborhood's past and present.

The controversy began when the library underwent renovation through the Branch Library Improvement Program, the $106 million bond measure to upgrade or replace the city's branch libraries.

Though the inside was renovated in 2009, community members could not agree on a plan for the outside. Should the faded and flaked mural be restored? Left alone? Replaced? Should artwork be removed altogether, restoring the building to how it looked in the 1930s?

After months of meetings and discussion, a task force finally settled on a pair of designs by local artists Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center and Reuben Rude, which will replace the current mural while attempting to pay homage to some of its elements.

"It was extremely painful to see the community torn apart by this controversy," said Beth Roy, who mediated the process. "To see this community renew connections and learn more about each other, come together with a joint purpose, has been enormously, enormously rewarding."

The artwork won the Library Commission's endorsement last week and now awaits the Arts Commission's approval. Installation would begin in the fall and cost about $115,000. Organizers plan to raise an estimated $70,000 for a third mural facing the playground in back.

The artwork proposed for the front of the library, facing Cortland Avenue, would consist of a bronze relief of a book lying horizontally. Its open pages curl into colorful waves intended to represent earth, air, fire and water.

Another mural, on the wall facing Moultrie Street, would depict a tree topped with several icons reminiscent of the original mural, such as a singing woman, a flying bird and an ocean wave. Other symbols hark back to the neighborhood's history, including an American Indian man and a boy representing Arturo Duran, a local teen fatally shot in 1980. In the middle are two hands clasped in a show of unity.

Critics have complained that the existing mural, created in 1982 by artists Arch Williams and Carlos Alcala, does not reflect the neighborhood's current demographics. Bernal Heights, once a predominantly working-class and Latino neighborhood, has been gentrified over the past decade.

"There are changes that happened, there are neighborhoods that change, and because of that, conflict sometimes arises," said Supervisor David Campos.

Among those who fought to preserve the mural was Mauricio Vela, who initially called the idea of removing the artwork "a slap in the face of the Bernal Heights Latino community." But he softened as the sides reached a compromise.

In October, Vela died of cancer. "One of the things he said to me a week before he died was one thing he wanted to stay alive for was to see it unveiled," Roy said.

Vela may be gone and a compromise may be in place, but debate is sure to continue.

Darcy Lee, who owns the neighborhood toy and gift shop Heartfelt, once preferred to see the library restored to its original form, sans artwork. But she said that while serving on the group that oversaw the design process, she came to embrace the new design.

"Both sides are such a great resolution and remind me of the old work, yet look new," she said. "It's perfect."

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